Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Busy Weekend---Books, Family, & Pet Lambs

By Maggie

The lamb pictured here is named Penelope, and I'll explain about her in the last paragraph of this post. I'm sharing the photo with Penelope along with the real-life owner of Lambspun knitting shop, Shirley Ellsworth (pretty blonde standing next to me). The young girl holding Penelope was a customer who couldn't resist the little furry bundle.

I don't know about you folks, but I was going 90 mph an hour this weekend--without my car. As I posted on the Cozy Chicks blog last week, this past weekend ALL FOUR of my daughters flew in from various parts of the country to have a special "90th Birthday" celebration with my mother. Even my granddaughter Natale came along, which made it even more special. What did we have planned? A big party? No. They came to simply spend time with my mom. Mom sat on the sofa in my living room, surrounded by my daughters, my granddaughter, and me. Just talking and laughing and talking and laughing and remembering and laughing and sharing and laughing some more. She loved it. I knew she would. She kept saying: "Look at all my beautiful girls." And we loved being with her.

I'd bought a special birthday cake---yummy carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We spent several hours just enjoying being with Mom. Oldest daughter Christine even logged on to her laptop with her Skype connection to connect with the rest of her family back at her home in Fairfax, Virginia (Northern VA). That way, we got to see and talk with my two grandsons, Joseph and Matthew and the youngest daughter in the family--two and a half year old AnaSofia. She couldn't understand why she could see "Mommy" but Mommy wasn't really there. My mom loved seeing her youngest great granddaughter.

After we got my mom all settled back in her condo apartment at the Worthington retirement center and ready for her early bedtime, the rest of us headed for Jay's Bistro here in Fort Collins, CO, for some delicious food, yummy martinis and fine wines, and great jazz.

In the midst of all of this celebrating, I had a booksigning at the Lambspun knitting shop here in Fort Collins in the late morning/early afternoon of that Saturday when my girls were arriving to visit Mom. So---I'm not exaggerating when I said I was running fast that Saturday. As those of you who've been following my Kelly Flynn mystery series set in "Fort Connor" Colorado know, that knitting shop in the series is based on the real Lambspun of Colorado shop where I first "fell down the rabbit hole" into the wonderland of fiber---color and texture and sensuality. While I was signing and meeting readers, Shirley Ellsworth, the real owner of Lambspun, told me that the shop had a visitor---a five-day old pet lamb named Penelope. Notice the diaper in the photos. Penelope's owner had her on a leash, which didn't stop Penelope from nibbling books in the bookcases as one of the photos shows.

Oh---and earlier that Saturday morning, I also squeezed in an hour to finish planting spring flowers in my front yard. I'd already filled the planter along my front walk with alternating purple and white petunias, then finished all the pots and planters in the front with various other bright annuals. All that was left were the big pots and planters near my mailbox along the sidewalk. Several pots, mind you. Right when I had a "spare" hour to plant, our spring weather decided to start a rain shower---light sprinkles. Well, we're not impressed with little sprinkles here in Colorado. So, I put on my Pacific Trail hiking jacket, pulled up the hood, and went out to plant. Got them all finished in an hour. Just in time to get cleaned up, change clothes, and drive over to Lambspun for the signing. As you can imagine, by the time I finally got to bed Saturday night, I was ready----and asleep in less than 60 seconds.